Sentient Beings are Numberless. I vow to save them all.

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One of the central vows that Buddhists chant is the lovely refrain above. I like to think of it as a codified version of animism, or what E.O. Wilson terms ‘biophilia’ which he defines as the ‘urge to affiliate with other forms of life’. As always the poets say it better; ‘I have fallen in love outward’, as Jeffers has Orestes say in The Tower Beyond Tragedy.

What might this mean in terms of how we live on the planet ?

A recent press release from Panthera ( a charity that campaigns for Big Cats) sets out the direct link between the survival of the iconic Snow Leopard and the presence of Tibetan monasteries in the Sanjiangyuan reserve on the Tibetan Plateau that protects the headwaters of the Yangtse (Dri Chu) , Yellow (Ma Chu) and Mekong (Dza Chu) rivers. It is one of the most beautiful places that I’ve ever been.

 

You can read the original article from Conservation Biology here : http://www.panthera.org/sites/default/files/cobi12135.pdf?utm_source=Copy+of+Press+Release%3A+Tibetan+Monasteries+Serve+as+Critical+Allies+for+Snow+Leo&utm_campaign=Press+Release+Tibetan+Monasteries+to+Listserv&utm_medium=email

As the article points out is it is widely recognised that

‘Sacred lands probably offer one of the oldest forms of
habitat protection and are important repositories of bio-
diversity outside formal protected areas in many parts of the world’.
There is a tantalising reference to a widespread myth that ‘according to Buddhist

scripture, the snow leopard owns the rocky mountains,
is the leader of all carnivores, and is one of the protectors
of the sacred mountains’.
I’ve never seen a Snow Leopard in the wild, although I’ve seen scat and pugmarks and been long enough in prime habitat with a good prey base (largely Blue Sheep) to cherish the illusion that I might just have been seen by one. Perhaps that is enough for this lifetime but I have a feeling that one winter day I’ll light out again for the high territory with big glass and down jacket .

 

 

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